Don Newcombe 1951 final games: 33 innings, 4 games, 8 days.

The U.S. Army may have saved Don Newcombe. He was drafted into the Army and missed the 1952 and 1953 seasons. Looking at his annual data those missing seasons seem to deprive Newcombe of the Hall of Fame. In 1956 Newcombe won the first Cy Young award (one award for both AL and NL) and Newcombe was also 1956 NL MVP.

So how did his military service save Newcombe? It provided Newcombe with two years to rest his throwing arm so that it wouldn't fall off from overuse. And by 1954 his Dodgers had a new manager: Walter Alston.

In 1951 the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers engaged in an epic pennant race to determine which team would face the defending two time World Series champion New York Yankees who were on their way to winning the World Series a record five consecutive years: 1949-1953.

In recently revisiting the Giants cheating in 1951 by stealing opposing catcher's signs, I examined the three "playoff" games, really three extra regular season games, between the Giants and Dodgers to break their tie after 154 games, the number played in the NL before 1962, after which they were both 96-58.

But to finish in a tie both teams had to win down the stretch. Final six games in 1951 for Newcombe:

Date	Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	DR	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	HBP	ERA	BF
Sep 17	BRO	@	CHC	L,3-5	GS-7		4	6.2	5	3	3	0	1	1	0	3.26	23
Sep 22	BRO		PHI	L,3-7	GS-6	L(18-9)	4	5	10	7	6	0	5	1	0	3.41	25
Sep 26	BRO	@	BSN	W,15-5	CG	W(19-9)	3	9	8	5	5	2	5	2	0	3.47	36
Sep 29	BRO	@	PHI	W,5-0	SHO	W(20-9)	2	9	7	0	0	2	6	0	0	3.35	33
Sep 30	BRO	@	PHI	W,9-8	8-13		0	5.2	1	0	0	6	3	0	1	3.28	26
Oct 3	BRO	@	NYG	L,4-5	GS-9		2	8.1	7	4	4	2	2	0	0	3.31	32

In his final four games Newcombe threw 33 innings in 8 days. In game 154 Newcombe pitched 5.66 innings in the famous 14 inning game in relief on ZERO days rest. ZERO.

September 26 Newcombe threw a complete game with the final score 15-5. The Dodgers scored 7 in the top of the 8th inning making the score 15-3 and could have removed Newcombe after 7 but instead had Newcombe pitch two more innings.

In the fateful final game Newcombe shutout the Giants through the first six innings, despite the Giants supposedly stealing the signs of Dodger catcher Rube Walker and relaying the pitch information to the Giants batters. Newcombe led 4-1 entering the bottom of the 9th and left with the score 4-2 and the tie run at the plate and a new pitcher relieving Newcombe: Ralph Branca, who started and lost the first of the three extra games 3-1 giving up home runs to Bobby Thomson and Monte Irvin. Branca was brought in to face that same Bobby Thomson in the bottom of the 9th.

All of which makes one wonder about Dodger manager Chuck Dressen:1951-1953.